Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1887-10-19
OUT OF A CLEAR SKY.
Strange Association Of Two En-
tirely Different Ideas.

For several years two entirely differ
ent ideas have been associated in my
mind in what was to me for a long time
a mysterious way.
l read somewhere in a book of Mexi-
can travels a startling account of q
happy wedding party assembled in an
adobe building which was struck by an
enormous aerolite that killed every
body and buried the building out of
sight in twinkling.
In one of Walt Whitman's poems
there is line, Where the lilacs last
in the dooryard bloomed." l have
never read or heard that line but in
stantly comes up in my mind the pic
ture of that awful event in Mexico.
Invariably the perfume of one suggests
the dire and sulphurous cruelty of the
other. There are no lilacs in Mexico.
Nor is there any mention of flowers at
all in the naive and terrible story of
natures dramatic catastrophe.
Will you tell me why feeting scent
of spring flowers brought with it a
picture of pampas grass, sound of
mandolin, a half-Spanish song, a bride
in black lace and yellow skirts, a group
of happy, swarthy faces and a thunder
bolt that buried them all forever and
instantly in indistinguishable ruinp
You can not. And it is my purpose
to tell you-that is why have written
this paper.
In the late spring of 1884 there was
living at Dobb's Ferry on the Hudson,
in a very pretty little half-Swiss cot
tage that glowed warm with redwood
shingles through the lilac bushes, my
friend Binninger. used to 60 and see
him quite often, for he had the ideal
home ofsthe romancer. His was the
only perfect realization of love in a
cottage, unmarried by any of the dis
turbing elements of life, that I had
ever seen.
He had married beautiful girl, with
whom he had fallen in love. He had
won her in spite Of wealthy rivals and
the opposition of wealthy parents. The
whole courtship was kind Of beauti-
full infatuation. He had good posi-
ton in commercial house in Beaver
street and on moderate income they
had furnished this little homo and set
tied down into that holy selfishness
which benignantly regards the rest OF
the universe as subsidiary and contrib.
utivc.
And tho rest of the universe appeared
to have aided and allotted the dream.
Every thing bloomed and sung and
glowed for them unevcntfully. They
were so radiant with love themselve,
that they made the world shine. And ]
don't think anybody of either sex could
have watched them billing and cooling
up there over the blue Hudson like .
pair Of robins without feeling happy
kind OF envy, mixed with a protest
against the DEGREES Of fate for having
concentrated all human happiness in
one pair.
Lou, rs he called her, was literally 8
radiant woman. Her pale beauty wa.
of that beamy order that emits ar
aureole. You never could quito dives
yourself Of the notion that q lambert
psychic light fell on things when she
looked ut them. She was, / suppose
that perfect equipoise of gentleness ant
sweetness and tenderness that the
poets have found no other name fol
than woman.
Mrs. Sherman, who used to drive ur
there from the Clock Tower House
called her an "alabaster lamp"
stood there on the graveled path one
afternoon admiring the bush lilacs thai
hung drowsy in their own perfume In
great masses round the porch, and she
came and put her bright face through
them to see who IL was. She lit the
scene in an instant After all, flower,
and sunshine itself were only frame.
for that face. remember the shade Of
disappointment that crossed II. She
thought Binninger had come.